Businesses are being limited

Yorkshire street in Morecambe's West End.

Published:09:24Thursday 05 June 2014

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I write to give you some feedback on how Yorkshire Street looks/feels to a shopper. Some of the shops (Wagtails, Thurlwells, the sweet/stationers shop for example) are most welcoming. Many of the outside (pavement areas) of the shops are clean.

However, outside several other shops are countless cigarette ends that unfortunately get thrown on to the ground and caught between the little cobbles where they build up in number over time and look unsightly.

Even more seriously, outside some of the shops the shopkeepers stand smoking in small groups with colleagues/friends, forcing passers-by to veer round them into the road if they don’t want to be caught in the cloud of smoke. Because of how they stand right at their doors in groups they give an impression similar to that of door staff (like bouncers) who you have to pass before being allowed in, rather than there being an open doorway that invites you in – how many elderly people (for example) or women on their own (for example) would feel confident enough to get through these groups? Maybe they find it easier to just walk on and go somewhere else instead.

Today a female passer-by was called a ‘f****** dog’ as she went around the outside of one such group (of two young ‘men’ and one young ‘lady’) who were at the doorway of the ‘nutrition’ (protein shakes, etc,) shop just up the road from Thurwells.

Yorkshire Street really is a mixed experience and I feel sorry for those lovely (and professional) shopkeepers whose business is, I am guessing, significantly limited because of the actions of the others.

Hoping this feedback helps to improve Yorkshire Street for tradespeople and shoppers.